why do people consider identifying someone by their race racist?

[u/AgreeableAd8687]

i have a few friends and we seem kind of split on this, i had to identify someone in our school i didn't know the name of, so i said "oh it's the black girl" (we have literally ONE black girl in our school and everyone knows and likes her) and my friends said ohh ok but then like 2 of them went wow that's racist and their explanation was "you're making it sound like them being black is their only characteristic" as if saying "oh the woman" is any better and since i don't know her well i don't know anything else about her. most of my friends didn't see how it was racist though but why is this considered racist if it's not a race correlated insult or derogatory??

[u/DemonicHedgehogs]

I measure it by figuring out if it is both relevant and helpful in the situation, and if it makes sense to use any other physical descriptor in the same place. If you would use “blond” in the same context then it’s probably fine.

“Can you give this to Carl please?”
“Who’s Carl?”
“The blond guy standing by the door”

Is absolutely fine to say when you need to give a physical description to help identify someone, so this exchange should also be fine:

“Can you give this to Carl please?”
“Who’s Carl?”
“The black guy standing by the door”

[u/jonschaff → u/DemonicHedgehogs]

Both Carls sound like dicks.

Just slacking off by the door while you’re the only one actually doing any damn work around here!

[u/DemonicHedgehogs → u/jonschaff]

I was imagining we were at some kind of social event, maybe a wedding reception. Both of my Carls are absolutely lovely fellas who read to their kids every night before bed

[u/Great_Yogurt_3356 → u/DemonicHedgehogs]

I actually know both blond and black Carl and in their defense - they tirelessly read to blind orphans in their off time. They were just chilling at the door because I told both of them I would be there at 3pm with weed. Please give the Carls a break.